git repository cloning logging

Question

I am looking to monitor the cloning activity within my git repository however I cannot find anything that shows how to set this up or how to retrieve this information.

Is this even possible? If so how can this be setup and also how do you retrieve the logging information?

Answer 1

You can use a post-checkout hook to update a database or file on your server. This hook runs on the client-side (that is, the person doing the clone will execute the script), so you need to design your script from that perspective. Also, it is possible to clone the repository without executing this hook by adding the --no-checkout option to git clone.

A simple and reliable approach would be to have the server running a small RESTful web service that your hook can call with curl or some similar facility. For example:

#!/usr/bin/env python

import socket, sys, urllib, pycurl

service_url = "https://my.server.dns/service.php"
data = urllib.urlencode({
  'prev':   sys.argv[1],
  'new':    sys.argv[2],
  'branch': sys.argv[3],
  'host':   socket.gethostname()
  })

c = pycurl.Curl()
c.setopt(pycurl.URL, service_url)
c.setopt(pycurl.POSTFIELDS, data)
c.perform()

See http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/githooks.html.